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Audio: Brian Bailey
Show |
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  The
Brian Bailey Show airs on Pirate
Radio 1250 on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
Brian's guests this week were
Heather Macy (left), Ruffin McNeill
 (right)
and Ayden-Grifton football coach
Paul Cornwell:
Replay
show... |
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View Pirate Radio
1250 Programming
Lineup |
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BASKETBALL |
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Lebo reaches milestone |
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 GREENVILLE
� East Carolina showed some of the
skills Jeff Lebo possessed as a
player at North Carolina in handing
the sixth-year Pirates coach his
300th career win on Monday night in
Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. ...
Story
& photos... |
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Pictured: Freshman
Kentrell Barkley
inbounds for the
Pirates during their
Monday night home
bout with Charlotte. (Photo by
Al
Myatt.) |
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Post-game
audio: Coaches and players... |
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING |
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ECU fortifies front lines |
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  East Carolina's recruiting class of
2016 has expanded to 15 with verbal
commitments from Mooresville High
School DT Jamil Dukes (left) and
Wake Forest Heritage High School OT
Jack Doyle (right). ...
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sketches... |
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BASKETBALL |
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White, Barkley fuel Pirates in
opener |
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GREENVILLE � East
Carolina won its season opening
basketball game over Grambling State
61-53 on Friday night at Williams
Arena in Minges Coliseum as Caleb
White scored 21 points. The outcome
provided Pirates coach Jeff Lebo
with his 299th career victory. ...
More from
Al Myatt... |
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BASKETBALL |
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Pirates sail into uncharted waters |
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 East Carolina will be entering the
realm of the unknown in several
areas as it hosts Grambling State in
its basketball opener on Friday at 8
p.m. "We don't have any film on
Grambling or anything," said
sixth-year Pirates coach Jeff Lebo. ...
More from
Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL |
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Season taking its toll |
 One of my media partners took time
out to ask East Carolina coach
Ruffin McNeill if he was okay after
McNeill met with the media late
Saturday night following the
Pirates' 22-17 home loss to South
Florida. He beat me to the question. ...
More from
Brian Bailey... |
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By
Brian Bailey
�2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE
ALPHA VERSION OF THIS PAGE
During the preseason many thought this
week�s East Carolina-Central Florida game would help decide the East
Division of the American Athletic Conference.
My how the mighty have fallen.
When last we saw UCF, the Knights were completing
a Hail Mary on the final play of the game to beat East
Carolina 32-30 last December.
Since that game these Knights lost in the Bitcoin Bowl to North Carolina
State in St. Petersburg, Florida. UCF then opened the year with a 15-14
loss to Florida International, which guided them into the tailspin that
they bring into this game.
The Knights are
0-10 in 2015. Ten games up. Ten games lost.
This is the same program that stunned 6th-ranked Baylor in the Fiesta
Bowl following the 2013 football season. Two years later, George O�Leary
announced his retirement with his team at 0-8, after a 59-10 loss to
Houston.
I talked with Coach O�Leary at the American Athletic Conference media
day in August in Newport, Rhode Island. He was upbeat and talked like a
coach who had a team that would compete for the AAC title.
He even sheepishly grinned when I asked him about UCF�s Hail May win
over East Carolina.
�We know we got lucky in that one,� said O�Leary. �Ruff is a good man
and a great coach. We�ve become good friends over the years so I hated
it for him. But it gave us a share of the American title.�
Coach Ruff spoke about that friendship at his weekly news conference on
Monday.
�UCF is having a tough time too right now, but it�s a George O�Leary
program,� said McNeill. �George built that program from the bottom,
brick-by-brick.�
Danny Barrett is 0-2 as the Knights' interim coach after replacing
O�Leary.
Call this the �Desperation Bowl� because both teams are trying to snap a
losing streak. UCF�s is at ten this season, while ECU has dropped three
in a row.
But does that mean added pressure on the Pirates?
�I feel pressure each week,� said McNeill. �Thirty-six years, each game
I feel pressure. I talked to my dad last night. Pressure is this: Your
house payment is $2,000 per month and you only make $1,000. You have to
find a way to get that $2,000. The pressure is I want to win for the
seniors and I want to win for this team. That pressure is always there.
It�s three times for me. I�ve been a student here, a player here and now
a coach here. Three times the excitement and three times it�s tough.�
The Pirates will return to their two-quarterback system for this game.
That system certainly worked better than James Summers having to carry
the burden alone.
Many had wondered why the change of heart and philosophy for the
quarterbacks.
McNeill addressed that as well.
�In fairness, James worked all summer at being Justin (Hardy) for us,�
explained McNeill. �When both quarterbacks went down, Cody Keith
included, putting James under the fire wasn�t really advantageous for
him, but he didn�t flinch. Blake (Kemp) and James work well together.�
Here�s hoping the two quarterbacks can both find success, and that this
Pirate offense returns to form against UCF Thursday night.
BB
The
Brian Bailey Show airs on Pirate
Radio 1250 on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
Brian's guests this week were high
school coaches Scott Gardner
(Farmville Central), Nate
Conner
(D.H. Conley) and Jim Bob Bryant
(Havelock):
Lyrics from an old
Carpenters song may
summarize how many
East Carolina fans feel
this morning after a
soaking 22-17 Saturday
loss to South
Florida that found the
Pirates stuck in
offensive slump. ...